Court Reporter

The de facto partner of Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes has corroborated his claim that he never paraded naked around the pool at neighbourhood barbecues or wore a sarong "like a miniskirt", as a number of his victims have asserted.

The evidence came from Robyn Gardiner, a theatrical agent who met Mr Hughes in 1975, and is now a witness in his ongoing trial on 11 child sex charges.

Among the allegations against Mr Hughes is that he deliberately exposed himself to young girls by wearing a sarong folded up above his knees without underwear.

On Tuesday, Ms Gardiner defended her de facto partner against the claims, confirming that she had bought herself and her husband sarongs, but that Mr Hughes only wore his while gardening.

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"Did you ever see him wear it as some sort of miniskirt?" Mr Hughes' lawyer Greg Walsh asked.

"Certainly not," Ms Gardiner responded.

"Do you have any memory of him wearing a sarong and exposing his genitals?" Mr Walsh continued.

"Absolutely not," she replied.

The theatrical agent also told the Downing Centre District Court she had never seen him walking around and swimming naked at the home of one of their neighbours.

"Did you ever see Robert at a barbecue walking around the proximity of the pool naked?" Mr Walsh asked.

"Absolutely not," Ms Gardiner replied.

"Did he swim naked in the pool?" he continued.

"No," she replied.

Ms Gardiner also backed up the actor's claim that he ceased contact with the mother of one of his alleged victims, not because he had behaved inappropriately as the mother claimed, but because the woman had attempted to get involved with her romantically during a houseboat holiday.

"I really don't feel comfortable talking about this but I guess I have to," Ms Gardiner said.

"[The mother of the alleged victim] had confided in me some months before the trip that there were certain tensions in the relationship [with her husband] and they were looking outside their relationship," she said.

"She told me that she wanted to bring other people into their relationship. It was told to me in confidence and I didn't make anything of it then but I wasn't interested [in being part of it].

"The first couple of days [on the houseboat trip] were fine but during the last couple of days it became clear that she wanted to experience that with me. I wasn't comfortable and I decided it was best if we didn't continue the friendship the way it had been."

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